I wasparalysed.
My eyes were fluttering, mouth heavy, and chest sinking into sleep.
The last thing I heard before the world slipped away was the gentle sound of flowing water.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SANORA
My mother’s voice was the first thing I heard.
It wasn’t soft, it was a scream. A sharp, terrifying one she’d probably never let loose in real life, breaking through the fog of unconsciousness.
My eyes shot open.
Damn.
The ceiling spun, white dots dancing in my vision as if they'd been hiding behind my eyelids, waiting to ambush me. My head throbbed so hard I believed something was trying to crack my skull open from the inside. A sharp, hot pain crawled up the back of my neck and curled behind my ears. My body felt like I’d been tossed down a hill in my sleep. Every joint was stiff, and every muscle was sore. Even my skin hurt.
What the hell happened?
I tried to sit up, but my arms wobbled, my spine protested, and the motion sent a jolt of nausea through my gut. I collapsed back onto the bed with a wince, my chest rising and falling rapidly.
Sunlight poured through the window, slicing through my headache like a blade. It was morning. I blinked up at the ceiling and squeezed my eyes shut again. Everything hurt too much to process.
Then something tugged in my mind. Just a colour.
Green.
So much of it. Leaves. Grass. Trees…water.
My eyes flew open. The stream.
Right. The Crater.
I remembered kneeling there. I remembered the ache in my limbs and the parched burn in my throat. I’d drunk from the stream. Then a wave of nothing had paralysed me.
But now I was here.
In my room.
Back in my bed.
I hadn’t walked home. I hadn’t woken up in the forest. I hadn’t crawled to my car and driven myself back. I didn’t even remember anything after falling.
So how was I…?
A softflipbroke through the silence. The sound of a page turning.
There was someone else in my room.
My blood froze in place as my brain screamed at my body to bolt out of the bed, but my limbs were too slow to obey. I turned my head on the pillow, my pulse instantly shooting through the roof at the sight I met.
Hesat to my left.
Black turtleneck, black trousers, black coat, black gloves, legs crossed. One gloved hand held up an open book, covering most of his face, but I didn’t need to see his features.
I knew who he was.
